The capitulation and French occupation ushered in the start of the short-lived “Mainz Republic,” the first of its kind on German soil. It was established by the local German Jacobin club, the Society of the Friends of Liberty and Equality [Gesellschaft der Freunde der Freiheit und Gleichheit], under the leadership of the naturalist and writer Johann Georg Forster (1754-94). Engraving by Samuel-Jean-Joseph Cholet (1786-1874) after a drawing by Victor-Jean Vincent Adam (1801-66), nineteenth century.